Monthly Archives: July 2010

So, a couple of weeks ago I was on eBay browsing around and I came upon so cheap windmills..these 2 produce around 90w of electricity in 12v..anyway I had them around for a week and they were getting in the way so I took a 10ft length of conduit, hammered it into the ground and put the double windmill on top..it actually works, swivels into the wind..they cost me around $120 after shipping so its not a huge amount of money..impulse buy but I will get around to hookink them up to something soon enough. These things would not really last if they were mounted up 30ft above the tree tops as you would normally do for a bigger sized wind turbine..plus a tower would cost thousands of dollars..it hardly seems worth it for a $120 turbine!

..OK, so propane was installed last sept. When it was installed I was worred about running out in the middle of winter and having no way to get the propane truck installed so I had 2 400L tanks installed..and today they cam to fill up the tanks since last fall..we use propane for tankless hot water and for a small heater. Since I was worried about running out we did nto really use the heater too much ( maybe 3 hours total since last Sept. ) and only used the propane for hot water. OK..so today the delivery truck comes while I am up on the coop roof putting on shingles. A* talks to the delivery guy and I see him go over to the tanks with the hose to fill it. 1 minute later he walks back to the truck, packs up and leaves…I was confused..So I get off the roof and go to A* and she is looking at the reciept.

Sept – July $20.21 for propane…wow..I guess we need to start using more propane..this fall we are heating the camp with propane in October and skipping the kerosene!

..so, we are in the final stages of getting rid of the 2 tonnes of crusher dust we purchased for the garden and around the house..and then the garden..but what to do with the remainder of the gravel? Well, I came home from work today and A* had taken care of it for us..as the base of the new fire pit! The fire pit is an old oil drum that was cut in 2 with a grinder saw. I had placed it in my yard and never touched it..when I should have. After I put it in the yard it started to rain and filled with water..and with no holes for drainage I had covered the whole thing with an old window and the water had been slowly evaporating..it was down to 2-3 inches so A* was able to dump it and haul it out of the way..then she filled the area with 15-20 loads of crusher dust, levelled it out and put the fire-pit back..it looks all professional-like..for the middle of the woods anyway. So, we lost a pile of rocks and gained a fire pit!!..When I got home I lit it up to burn off any remaning oil and hammered a hole in the side to prevent it from filling up again. We are happy because in the past we have had a fire whereever we were in the yard..last spring it looked like we were bombed there were so many burned out circles in the yard..don’t get me wrong..those places are really fertile but at the same time its nice to have something a little more permanent…and its also nice to be done with the 3 week job of heavy lifting of crusher dust…I think I will drink a warm beer to celebrate!

Beds are for sleeping in. Beds are for humans. Other beds are for flowers and these are for growing things in…Keep these simple rules in your head and you will not end up planting a sunflower in your queen size matress or wake up and realize that the rhubarb is in fact, not a pillow. Live and learn..live and learn. I wish someone had explained these simple rules to me whan I was 16…would have saved me from some uncomfortable sleeps..but I did meet some wonderful wildlife…but I digress.

A* and I have most of the work done on the 2 flower beds that we already had..1 of the beds we improved and put in more soil and compost..the other we created from nothing so that we had more room to plant flowers, shrubs and ants. WIth those projects mostly out of the way we wanted something closer to the house. Most of the trees and shrubs had been taken away from teh house so we wanted to start bringing things closer to home..and this flower garden would accomplish that. We wanted to use one of the trees that we bought 2 weeks ago as a focal point of the bed but we did not want a traditional box..instead we followed the contours of the land so that we would fill in all of the low spots and create a bed at the same time.

Initially when we were talking about doing this work we laid out an area with some clothes-line..but as the summer progressed the grass covered over everything so yesterday we went out and found some garden stones and created an outline for the bed:

before flower bed...and post rear hubcap...laid out..if you build it flowers and shrubs will come...with a coop in progress..with 1 of the Nookta trees planted

..laid out..if you build it flowers and shrubs will come...with a coop in progress..this was taken a month after she did it

Nothing too complicated but it should do the trick..A* is a teacher and is off for the summer..so when I got home today I had a suprise waiting for me..the garden bed was done! Usually A* leave the heavy lifting to me but she took it upon herself to ge the job done and it looks great..there are still sods all over the place and there is not enough dirt and compost in the bed..but its a start!

this was taken a month after she did it..the place was a mess and I did not want to give you the wrong impression...a more finalized coop in the background too.

..the trellise is a trial version..I am planning on making a driftwood version in the spring...that is a 10 minute trellise..if that is how you spell it. The chickens often hang out under the birdfeeder waiting for a sunflower seed to drop..courtesy of the picky nuthatches.

We have plans for 2 more beds next spring..but its going to have to wait to get started..the space for the beds is currently being occupied by 4 cords of wood that need to be split.

a* made a new hearth pad for the woodstove! We knew that the old hearth pad was not going to cut in in the future so we reitiled the old one. We wanted more of a mosiac so we broke a bunch of tiles we liked and started to make a pattern.

Nothing TOO special but I think it looks 20 times better then it did.A* and I did have a squabble about how it should be done but she settled it when I got home to see she had done it her way.

In this final shot A* has applied the grout to it..so it is basically done..We will apply a sealer then put the stove back in place..all ready for winter!